I Struggle With Milton

Books & Reviews / Classics / Poetry / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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Confession time: I find a lot of epic or narrative poetry a slog. Milton, Homer, Dante… I have read my way into them all, but unlike my other books, I never get very far in any of them at each reading, although I make the effort and do so often. I don’t even enjoy reading Shakespeare’s two long poems, Venus and Adonis, and The Rape of Lucrece, and I read everything else by the bard with great relish.  It’s odd because I love reading Chaucer’s poetry, even his longer pieces. I delight in Shakespeare’s sonnets. I have dozens of collections ……… click below for more ↓

The Penguin Classics Book

Books & Reviews / Books about books / Literature / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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Did you know there is a card game played in Japan at the New Year, called uta-garuta, where 100 cards have a full poem on each — traditionally taken from their classical poets — and another 100 have just the final line. Players take turn reading the poem from the deck, while the others race to find its concluding line from the cards with the final lines. I didn’t until I read about it on page 111 of The Penguin Classics Book, by Henry Eliot. (I think that’s a wonderful game idea and wish someone would do a similar game ……… click below for more ↓

The Hermeneutics of Suspicion

Local media / Media / Politics / Style & usage / What I'm Reading Now / Words & etymologyLeave a comment

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The title is a phrase I encountered while reading Mark Thompson’s excellent book on political rhetoric, Enough Said: What’s Wrong With the Language of Politics? Thompson’s book is both about the current and historic use of political rhetoric (from Aristotle forward), but also about the role of journalists in covering it. Thompson — a former new editor and executive in the BBC and now with the New York Times — maintains we are in  “a crisis of political language” that comes from a combination of modern media, social media use, and also in the changing way politicians speak (“characterised by ……… click below for more ↓

Where is Wat Tyler Now That We Need Him?

Canadian Politics / Political fads / Political philosophy / Politics / Social Order & Disorder / US PoliticsLeave a comment

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I was disappointed that the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began with such vigor and hope in 2011, soon petered out  into a sputtering, unfocused political miasma barely a year later. I was even more deeply disappointed that the antifa (anti-fascist) protests, which also seemed to have such promise earlier this year,  lost its momentum and focus by mid-summer, 2020. The Black Lives Matter movement, which looked like it, too, had real strength and direction earlier this year, seems to have withered by the late summer of 2020.  These are merely the latest popular uprisings and protests against the machinery ……… click below for more ↓

Lessons from History

History & Biography / Media / Political philosophy / Politics / US PoliticsLeave a comment

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It is common practice to look back and conflate the events of the past with those of the present, seeking parallels, resonance, and answers from previous events that help explain today’s. We learn from others, from their experiences, and we like to find commonalities in our shared experiences, even from our or other’s historic past. We see ourselves reflected in our past and we sometimes mistake that reflection for the reality. Machiavelli did it in both The Prince and The Discourses, didactically using examples from classical Greek and Roman texts to explore the events, politics, and governance in his contemporary ……… click below for more ↓

Bring Back the Yogh and the Thorn

Fonts & Layout / Language & Grammar / Typography / Words & etymology / Writing & cursive5 Comments

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Ye Olde Shoppe. We’ve all seen the signs like this. Ever wonder why it says “ye” instead of “the”? Me, too, at least way back then. I’ve known the answer a long time now from decades of reading about English, about typography, Chaucer, and about Middle English orthography. Spoiler alert: It was pronounced “the.” Not “ye.” Sorry to disappoint readers who have been saying “ye” all this time. The “ye” was actually spelled “(thorn)e” — thorn was a letter in the Old and Middle English alphabets that stood for “th.” It started out looking like a lowercase “p” as in ……… click below for more ↓

I Just Don’t Understand Americans

Musings / Politics / US PoliticsOne Comment

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I’ve long been somewhat of a politics/history junkie, and as such I read a lot about both topics, from ancient times to modern; I read about events, wars, issues, personalities, elections, debates, governance, and the philosophy of politics. I read books, newspapers, websites, magazines, social media, and more books. I don’t have cable TV, however, but I do get to several reliable media sites online every day, including BBC, CBC, Al Jazeera, Atlantic, Reuters, Spiegel, Agence France Presse, Forbes, Macleans, New York Times, The Star,  Globe & Mail, Slate, and others.*  So even though I am not an American, I ……… click below for more ↓

The Cancer Diaries, Part 7

Cancer / Daily life / My Writing / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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I don’t want readers to think I’m being narcissistic in writing these posts about my cancer or how it has affected me. Sure, I can be accused of being all sorts of things for writing my other posts, and a narcissist is the least of them. I’m sharing these because I felt — I hoped —others might benefit from my experiences: men and their partners. I think partners (be they men or women) should be as fully informed and engaged about what happens and what to expect as the patient. I found a lot of medical and pseudo-medical (read: quack) ……… click below for more ↓

Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

Astronomy & Cosmology / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Humour & Satire / Politics / Predictions and prophecies / Science & TechnologyOne Comment

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News that asteroid “2018 VP1“, will pass within about 480 kms of Earth on November 2, 2020, has raised social media hopes that it might be drawn in by the planet’s gravity and crash on the White House, thus ending any speculation about the reviled Donald “Putin’s Puppet” Trump’s re-election. However, if you are among the alleged millions who wish for this scenario, I suggest you are being overly optimistic. Not only is the targetting rather too specific, but the chances of it even reaching the ground are very slim. And besides, it’s pretty damned small for an asteroid. 2018 ……… click below for more ↓

The Talibangelist Conspiracy to Rule America and the West

Books & Reviews / Christianity / Creationism / Critical Thinking / Cults / Evangelicals / International politics / Politics / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Religious intolerance / Theocracy / US Politics3 Comments

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Talibangelists (aka (aka the pseudo-Christian, far right) would love to force everyone believe in and obey their highly-adulterated pseudo-religion, and to punish those who don’t.  Or won’t. Punishment is big on their agenda: unbelievers, those who stray, followers of a real faith, scientists, intellectuals, people of colour, gays, people with an “R” in their name — they love to punish anyone not among their small circle of authoritarian theocrats  (aka theocons, because their pseudo-religious ideology is conservative-far right) and enablers (cue the theme music from The Handmaid’s Tale). In order to bring their authoritarian ideology into public policy and ramp ……… click below for more ↓

The Cancer Diaries, Part 6

Daily life / Family history / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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I’m sitting here, on my back deck, in the late Friday afternoon, beside Susan, trying to take stock of my life over a glass of wine, and read a bit while the light’s still good. I’m 30 days past my surgery and recovering reasonably well, but still three weeks away from my next set of tests, and almost four until I sit down with the urologist and learn if I still have cancer. And what happens next. All the rest of my life is on hold until that meeting. My father lived to 92, and died of esophageal cancer, caught ……… click below for more ↓

Trump plays the god card

Christianity / Cults / Evangelicals / Politics / Religion / Religious intolerance / Theocracy / US PoliticsOne Comment

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For a nation that allegedly separates church and state, Americans sure love to splash religion all over everything, their elections especially. So this week, Donald Trump made headlines by accusing the frontrunner, Joe Biden of being “against god.” Cue the angels with trumpets. Americans make big oompah sounds about their politicians having religion — Christian religion specifically and preferably protestant — although curiously, as Trump has proven, the voters don’t seem to give a rat’s ass whether that same politician has any ethics or morality. Trump didn’t say which god, of course. I’m pretty sure it would be accurate to ……… click below for more ↓

The day that reason died

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Conspiracy Theories / Creationism / Critical Thinking / Education & Learning / Internet & Social Media / New Age Codswallop / Political fads / Politics / Pseudoscience & Quackery / US PoliticsLeave a comment

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I’m not a believer in alien visitations and UFOs, but I’ll bet if an alien did swing by, after an hour or two observing us, checking out Facebook or Twitter, they’d lock their doors, hang a detour sign around our planet, and race off. They’d tell their friends not to visit us because we were all nuts. Scarily, dangerously crazy. Seriously. What sort of world can be called civilized when it has people touting — and believing — homeopathy? Reiki? Chemtrails? Anti-vaccination screeds? Anti-mask whines during a frigging pandemic? Wind turbines cause cancer? 5G towners spread COVID-19? Creationism? Reflexology? Alien ……… click below for more ↓

Whatever happened to conservatives?

Canadian Politics / International politics / Municipal Politics / Politics / Provincial Politics / US PoliticsLeave a comment

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It’s hard to believe these days, but in many nations, conservative political parties were once actually the defenders of the nation’s interests, of the greater good, of the public, and of the state. They weren’t always the corporate shills, protectors of billionaires, privatizing libertarians, lobbyist puppets, Talibangelist lapdogs*, and racists they all seem to be today. No, once upon a time they actually cared about their country and its people, not just themselves and the firms that own them. Look at the Republicans in the USA. It the Republican party under Lincoln that fought racists and went to war for ……… click below for more ↓

Shopping carts, masks, and morality

Culture / Ethics & morality / Musings3 Comments

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The shopping cart theory — or rather the S.C. hypothesis, since it really isn’t a theory in the proper scientific sense — is a test of our humanity and whether we have any empathy, or so the notion goes: The shopping cart is ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. But it’s more than that: it’s a test of civility, social conscience, morality, community, and ultimately our own level of selfishness. But none of these sites seem to bring up the outright theft of shopping carts for the sake of convenience by someone too lazy to ……… click below for more ↓

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